Promotions

When you work your entire life to build a creative product, you think that the “creation” of that product is the hardest part–the writing or planning or filming or recording or painting or the whatever.

But, when you’re done with a finished product, and you send it out to the world, and you wait in vain for the people to discover your work, you realize that the creating wasn’t the hardest part.

The selling of said product is the hardest part. That’s the point in an author’s career, where the forward momentum stops. I’m trying so hard not to let that be it for my career. It’s not enough to pour your soul into something…you have to put yourself on the line; lay yourself open to criticism; and be as vulnerable as you have been in your entire life.

There is no way, no way that anyone could describe this life as easy.

So, you try various ways to promote yourself, and hope that in the process, you don’t burn out your friendships and contacts. I err too far on the side of not talking about my creative life (this blog not withstanding – LOL).

Anyway, KDP has a promotion going where members of Kindle Prime can borrow books. Authors who sign up for this are signing up for a program called Kindle Select. I went ahead and tried this with two of my titles. As part of the program, you can “promote” yourself by giving away your book for free. I tried this for the first time on Thursday, still not really understanding how it works. And of course, there is no royalty associated with books given away for free. However, as an experiement, I wanted to try it. If someone gets one copy of my book for free, then they like it, then maybe they will purchase copies of my other books, right?

The time period is based on west coast time, so that meant that the promotional period runs from 2am to 2am in my time zone. When I woke up at 3am (dang that insomnia), I had “sold” a few books. Then I kept looking at the numbers to try to make it to 100. After all…that’d be 100 people who hadn’t been exposed to my books before, that now were, right? By 7 am, I’d hit the 100 mark. Then by 9 am, I’d hit the 200 mark. By then, I was hoping to get to 500. 500 is a respectable number, right? In how many other creative endeavors had my work been exposed to 500 people? Yes, I’ve been a newspaper reporter where 500 people have read my words. Yes, I’ve sent out press releases when 500 people will have glossed over the words. Yes, I’ve sung original songs in front of hundreds of people. But that’s passive. The KDP promotional tool is active–people who read are having access to my book. By 2pm, which was 12 hours into the promotion, I’d hit 500. Gee….okay, now what?

By this point, I’m getting nervous. I wanted people to read my book, but the anxiety kicks in: what if the formatting isn’t right (which is a huge issue with Kindles as well as other ereaders); what if they didn’t like the book or the story; what if–being a novella–they were expecting a full length book and they are unhappy; etc. Anxiety after anxiety after anxiety.

So, I called my Mom, who gets excited about all this stuff, and thinks it’s super-cool, and she got my brain turned around back to “this is cool” “this is a great opportunity”, etc.

I stayed awake enough for me to see the 1000 mark. Then I went to bed. Bottom line: I had 1217 downloads of one title during this free promotional 24-hour period. That has to count for something, right? There have to be bounce-back sales. I know I’ve had 5 so far.

I decided to try my other book that’s on KDP, and it’s racking up “free” sales today. (Sunday if you’re reading this and you want to go get a free ebook. _Right Under Her Nose_ by LeAnn Coston at Amazon.)

If you got either the last one or today’s, and if there are formatting errors, please email me and let me know. I want to get this right, but you hope and work and try, but still…it’s hard to get everything right. Formatting errors are a huge factor with ereaders.

So, the Friday after the Thursday experiment, I had 2 ebooks returned for the first time. By today, I’d had 3 returns. Not exactly sure what that means. It could be as simple as someone thinking the book was still in the free period, and they downloaded it and realized there was a price, and returned it? But, I know that in one instance, one “free” book was returned. Why would you return a free book, unless there was something wrong with it?

Anxiety again.

Over on the music side, I’ve been spending a lot of time in my music studio. Playing the piano, playing the guitar, planning my next recording session in OKC. I had bought a backup laptop when my main computer had troubles. I decided to utilize that laptop as a music computer. I had tried my recording studio stuff on it one day, but I didn’t get very far. But, I can do lots of business and administration stuff on that computer, and it turns out that having my work divided by computer and by work station makes much more sense. So, I have that computer fired up and I go to the music room and work on administrative paperwork for awhile, till I get tired of it, then come back to my main computer (and check to see how many free books people have downloaded today), and breathe and think. Then I work some more.

I decided that this is the year I’m going to learn the fiddle. There–I said it out loud- in public. I had bought a fiddle maybe 8 years ago, and goofed around with it some, but nothing serious. I opened it up yesterday, and the hair on the bow was falling apart. I was surprised, but what did I expect? It’s not going to last forever. So, I worked on the bow, but very little hair was left. Gee….what to do to solve this problem? Not being a fiddler, I’ve never re-haired a bow. Living in the middle of no-where, where do you go to have this done?

Solution: buy a new bow. So, I bought a bow on ebay last night. I can’t wait till it gets here. I have no idea how this learning process will go. I am a musician already. I understand music. I have watched fiddlers play, so I do know more than if this was the first instrument I’d ever tried. Still, it’s a completely new skill set. And I really, really want to play the cello. So, this is a step in that direction.

Yesterday one of my book co-writers and I planned out a book project. A good deal of this work has been done already, so hopefully it won’t take but a few months to pull together. I have the bulk of my part of the writing done already, but….for the first time in my life, I’m going to attempt cover art. My part of the cover will be incorporated into other things, so it’s not a solo cover. I’m both excited and nervous. I have art training, but it’s very raw and art is quite low on my priority level. Still…how cool would that be, for a piece of my art to be on a book cover?

Anyway, I find that the writing is awake in me (as is the music). After so many months and years of it being dormant, it’s great to have things percolating again. I keep writing too-long emails to my friends, and words still keep popping in my brain. So, it’s time to get back to some writing. There are always at least a dozen books and screenplays, etc, that I’m writing on, that are in various stages of completion. If there are this many words in me, then it’s time to put them to good use.

Wishing you peace.

Forever 11:59 is in print

It’s here! It’s available! It sees the light of day!

My mystery book _Forever 11:59_ is in print!

It’s available as a paperback and as an ebook.

Here is the prologue:

Forever 11:59
Prologue

The price of gasoline at the Shell station was $3.38 per gallon.
That’s as good as it’s going to get, I figured, and I signaled for a right hand turn into the filling station.  My Chevy truck turned to the right, just as I wanted it to, and my twenty-two foot home on wheels followed it.  I pulled up in front of one of the two gas pumps and cut the engine. Before I could even reach for the door handle, a voice said through my open window, “Fill her up, ma’am?”
The ‘ma’am’ didn’t sit too well with me. I’m twenty-nine years old, which is not old enough to be ma’amed!
“Yeah, thanks,” I told the young attendant.  He didn’t look like he was nineteen years old, soaking wet. “Both tanks.”
“Sure, thang, ma’am,” he said, “right away.”
I sighed at the second ma’am, but he had already turned his back to me.
I got out of the truck to stretch my legs. I had spent the night in  Missouri, and I left in the small hours before dawn. It had been a long drive. Thank goodness for coffee and thermoses.
So, this is Autumn, Kansas, population  950, I thought.  Oh, I’d heard about the place. I’d listened to Dad’s stories about his family as he was growing up. He didn’t actually grow up here, but my late grandfather did. There wasn’t much to look at, but maybe there was more to the town somewhere else. From where I was standing I could see a tiny post office, a small grocery store, and a sign on a storefront that read Jakes. It gave no clue as to the type of business. I saw one beauty shop.  Then there was the Shell station, which I could see had a series of shelves for movie rentals. There was a small brick building. I squinted hard at the small sign. It read ‘City Hall’.  There looked to be some empty storefronts along the street. That was it. There were no more stores in sight. There were no more businesses in sight. And there was no traffic in sight.  Here, you didn’t need to look both ways before crossing the street, because you could hear any vehicle moving from four blocks in either direction.
“Arkansas plates, huh?”
I turned at the sound of the young attendant’s voice.
“You new around here?” he asked.
“Uh huh.”
“What brings you to Autumn, ma’am?”
I stifled the urge to box his ears and start shouting epithets about my age. “I’m here visiting relatives,” I said, false sweetness dripping from my voice. I looked him straight in the eyes.  Then I gave him a whisper of a little smile. This is what we women call mild flirtation.
“Harummph,” cough, cough, cough. “Uh,….pretty nice weather we’re having…for April…aren’t we?” His blush started at the vee of his shirt and slowly rose.  My eyes held his eyes.
When his blush was about up to his eyebrows, I let him off the hook. “Gorgeous, just gorgeous,” I said.
He nodded and looked away.
I continued my survey of the town, at least the part I could see.  I’d see the other half later.
Standing on tiptoe, I looked down the street for Aunt Edna’s house, but I couldn’t see it. I knew it was on Main Street, and was therefore blocked from view by the other buildings.
I was in Autumn for Aunt Edna’s eightieth birthday celebration.  She’d invited me back in January. This was April, and I wasn’t about to miss it. She said she was inviting every relative that she had, and I’m sure most of the town would show up, too.
“Uh, harumpph, uh, ma’am?”
Not again, I thought.
“That…that’ll be $94.64.”
Mentally I shook my head.  Oh, Carter, give him another chance, I thought to myself.
Slowly I reached down to the front pocket of my jeans. Slowly I pulled my hand out, as I did, I lifted my chest. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.  Strike one, I thought.
Slowly, I peeled off five twenties. Then I got in the truck and slammed the door. I stuck my left hand out the window and tucked the twenties in his shirt pocket, then I pulled the flap of his pocket down and patted it flat.
He stared at me and his jaw fell open.   Strike two, I thought. Then with my index finger, I gently raised his jaw and put my finger to his lips.
“Uh—hm, uh, ma’am?” he stammered.
“Strike three,” I said.
I cranked the truck and put it in gear.  I pulled out and he hollered something.  I chuckled.  At least he had the grace to stop after ‘thank you’.

Patriotism–expressed in song

I go to Branson, Missouri a lot. It’s my favorite vacation spot, and I go several times per year. One of the great things about Branson is that it promotes God and Country.

Most of the shows end their performances with a Patriotic song. But…there are only a few patriotic songs out there from which to choose. So, a couple years ago, after hearing one of those songs performed one time too often, I came out of a show and walked across a parking lot and thought, “Someone needs to write a new patriotic song”.

So, I did.

This process took a couple of years in the making, from writing the song, refining it, having my co-writers fine tune it, arranging it, figuring out the vocal styling/breathing, and then….recording it. So, yipee! As of this week, I have a track.

Now comes the marketing. So, I’ve been up half the night doing paperwork and getting a mailing ready to go out.

The song is called Stand Up for Lady Liberty.  It’s about hope and faith and trust and the foundation that this country was built on.

I have paperwork yet to do, so I’m not going to post the song online right now, but I plan to have it available for you soon.

As with anything I do, projects snowball at an amazing rate. But…if you have the work, then why not go all-in? Why not shoot a music video? I think it’d be great if another singer recorded the song, but that doesn’t preclude me from promoting the song with me as the lead singer.

Having achieved a certain age in a world where youth and looks are considered the most important thing in the music business, I had rather given up on me being a performing vocal artist. If I made it as a songwriter/publisher, then that’s fine. That’s enough. I still perform local shows and sing my own demos. That’s probably enough for me–right?

But, take a step back. With age comes wisdom. With age comes life lessons and experience. Those things don’t make the music less. They make the music become more. When you’ve lived through the highs and lows of life, your singing has so much more soul. Why must age be a factor in the music business–at least to the extent it is now?

So, as I was driving home from the recording session Wednesday night, an overwhelming calmness fell over my shoulders, and I had the feeling of “I am a recording artist”. I know I can sing.

Music business has been on the back burner for awhile, so it’s nice to move it to the front. I think I have two front burner things going, as the mystery book is sitting there awaiting my attention. The movie business is total back burner, but that’s okay…it’ll be there when I get there.

I thought I was dreaming…

But it turns out….it was reality.

It’s been an intense week. Highs and lows, joy and heartbreak.

It seems like I’m either totally shut down (wintertime shut down mode) or totally moving 100mph down this crazy train track that is my creative life.

Last week, I submitted the mystery book for print publication. Yesterday, I held that book in my hand. Can you imagine the joy? How long has this book been waiting in the wings to see the light of day? How many publishers and agents have turned it down? This project has been years in the making.

So, to see that book and to hold it in my hands is a great joy in my life.

In the midst of joy, there is heartbreak. One of my dear friends died this past Saturday. I’m so sad that he’s gone, but my life is so much richer for him having been in it. The funeral was yesterday, Valentine’s Day, and it seems like in the past few years, I’ve lost so many people who are dear to my life.

But still, we move forward and keep moving on. Creativity is the be-all and end-all of my life. I may not be actually doing anything at every moment of my life, but my brain is always going.

Today I woke up at 2am. Insomnia is always a problem for me.

At 8am, I had the car loaded, and I headed out on damp roads and foggy skies to Oklahoma City for an appointment at the recording studio.

This is my second session at this new studio, and the engineer and I just clicked. You know how it is when you find a kindred spirit? This was like that. It takes a little while to find your groove, to find a way to communicate, to make it work. But the learning curve in this studio was nonexistent. It clicked immediately. We made good music.

We made good music.

I was BORN to do this with my life.

What words can describe what it is to create something so intangible as a piece of music? Mere words cannot describe what it is to have a piece of my soul captured onto recorded media for all time. Music is about letting out what you feel inside.

For regular readers of this blog, you know how many times I’ve complained of the difficulties of audio engineering. It’s not anything I’ve been able to accomplish on my own. But I’ve got to figure out how to do this myself. I can perform. I can sing and play and write and play the instruments. I can arrange and hire musicians (although today was solo work) and produce. So, to not be able to engineer a session myself has been a major hole in the process.

Finding this new studio, and finding someone who cares about music as I do, and who is willing to work with me ?!?!?!? (not always as easy task)….that is a great joy.

I’ve waited soooo long to be able to send music out into the world. Now…maybe now…that time is nigh.

I bid you happiness and fond wishes that all your dreams become reality.

It’s done!

Whew!

The mystery manuscript is done! Who knew it would take that long? The book itself was written a few years ago. The last few months have been spent trying to edit and proof and work on the cover. I finally gave up on the graphic design and had someone else build the book cover (see earlier blog entry). And what I figured to be three weeks of editing turned out to be four months!

But yesterday, finally, the manuscript was complete. Immediately I started work on formatting. Each place to which you submit  requires a different format. I’ve done this enough now, to kind of have an idea of what I’m doing…but still…for each step of the process, you have to stop and figure and read and learn, and rework and resubmit. If there is a phrase “endless thinking” it applies here. You never get everything figured out.

So, today….after all this time, I just submitted the book to the print publisher. Now there is a turnaround time to see if it passes. There are soooo many mistakes that you can make, format, margins, content, crop, bleed, etc. Mostly I’m worried about the cover having enough dpi and data size to print accurately. Graphic design knowledge still eludes me. But, I’ve worked this as best I can, so there’s nothing to do but wait and see. If it passes, it passes. If not, I’ll revise and move forward and try it again.

So, yet one more time, dreams do come true. I wanted to be a writer in order to do this: write mystery novels. I created this female progatonist who is sassy and observant and has an inner dialog. I created the setup so that she lives in a travel trailer and goes to different locations, and therefore we can explore different locales in the books.

Here is the back blurb:

Forever 11:59 is the first book in an exciting new mystery series featuring the female protagonist Carter Thompson. Carter arrives in Autumn, Kansas to help her Great Aunt Edna celebrate her 80th birthday.

               Carter is a witty, sarcastic, observant woman, so as she is thrown into the melee of crazy,  gossipy small-town life, she finds herself reacting as a fish-out-of-water.

When a murder is committed and Carter finds that she can’t leave town, her powers of observation and curiosity kick in.

***

I won’t know what to do with myself. This has been my front burner project for sooo many months. In a way, the weight of the project has lifted off my shoulders. But the weight of everything else settles onto me again. There is sooo much work to do, so much to figure out, so much work to be done. I will never be satisfied. Even at those moments when I think of the things accomplished so far, all I can think of is the drive and ambition to move forward.

Are all creative people like this? How do things work in your creative life?

Wishing you peace.

Writing! Winter-Time!

Although the wintertime hasn’t been bad here, it still takes a toll. I find that my creativity shuts down in the winter. Not much I can do will change that, so I just have to roll with it. I have tons of stuff on my “to do” list, but you can only handle as much as you can handle.

So, at any rate, this mystery book has been sitting for weeks, but finally, today, I’m going thru the final edit. After that, it’s about formatting. Today’s work is creative…after that’s done, then the work shifts to being  more technical.

So, fingers crossed that the mystery will soon see the light of day. When I started this process back in the autumn, I had no idea it would take this long.

But….a dream is about to come true, as my first mystery is published. I’ve waited for years and years and years to be a part of the “mystery author” fraternity.

Wishing you peace and love…
Happy February 6!